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Buckethead
Buckethead (born Brian Carroll in 1969 ) is an American guitarist and composer. He is known for wearing a white plastic mask and a KFC bucket on his head and for being a quiet individual who rarely if ever gives interviews. He is a prolific composer, having released about 40 solo albums and performed on over 50 more. He has also made a guest appearance on more than 40 different albums from various artists. His music spans across diverse areas such as thrash metal, funk, electronica, jazz and avant-garde music. Although a multi-instrumentalist (playing bass guitar, banjo, keyboards, ukulele, organ, violin, clarinet, saxophone, recorder, drums, gong, and piano), Buckethead is best known for his electric guitar playing, characterized by diverse playing styles spanning thrash guitar, fingerpicking, and slap guitar. Guitar One] voted him number 8 on a list of the "Top 10 Greatest Guitar Shredders of All Time".http://www.randyciak.com/guitar/top_shredders_of_all_time.htm Buckethead makes extreme use of tritones in his music which sound dissonant and give the impression of robotic and unnatural sounds.http://www.randyciak.com/guitar/top_shredders_of_all_time.htm Although Buckethead now works primarily as a solo artist touring the United States solo or with a trio, he has had a wide variety of high profile collaborations with such artists as Les Claypool, Tony Williams, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Iggy Pop, Serj Tankian, Guns N' Roses, Saul Williams, Mike Patton, Viggo Mortensen and with Bill Laswell on Praxis. Buckethead also has a career writing and performing music for major motion pictures. Some of the films he has worked on include: Saw II, Ghosts of Mars, Beverly Hills Ninja, Mortal Kombat, Last Action Hero and the soundtrack of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. Career Early days (1988 - 1992) As a teenager in 1988, Buckethead entered a song called "Brazos" into a Guitar Player Magazine contest; it was a runner up, This is what was said about him: The song was released on the 1991 demo tape of his band Deli Creeps, titled "Tribal Rites". In the same year the editor of Guitar Player Magazine, Jas Obrecht came to know of Buckethead when his parents and him left a demo in the reception that later Obrecht received. Impressed with his demo recording he rushed into the restaurant where Buckethead and his parents were having lunch and encouraged him to make the most of his talenthttp://youngbuckethead.com/ young buckethead page in the section "about", they soon became friends. In 1991 Buckethead moved into Obrecht's basement (this is also where most of the footage for the Young Buckethead DVDs was filmed). After the 2 demo tapes, Buckethead released Bucketheadland on John Zorn's Avant record label in 1992. Though available only as a pricey Japanese import, the record received positive reviews and earned some attention. At about this time, Buckethead fell into the orbit of prolific bassist/producer Bill Laswell (himself an occasional Zorn collaborator); as either a performer, producer or composer, Buckethead was introduced to Laswell with the help of the drummer Byran "Brain" Mantia who give Laswell a video of Buckethead playing in his roomhttp://www.tedkurland.com/pbuild/linkbuilder.cfm?selection=doc.271 Bill Laswell taking about Praxis and when he met Buckethead. Laswell was involved in many of the albums listed in the discography below, and Buckethead made many more appearances on albums by Laswell's collaborators. In 1992 Buckethead, with Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell and Brain, formed the supergroup, Praxis. Their first album Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis), released in 1992, was well received. The project was Bill Laswell's concept, and has since involved other guests such as Serj Tankian of System of a Down and Les Claypool of Primus, among others. Buckethead did not participate in all the albums. Death Cube K (1994 - 1995) Death Cube K is an anagram of "Buckethead" he created by Tom "Doc" Darter to circumvent legal complications with Sony Records. About his style, Buckethead answers in his FAQ: Science fiction author, William Gibson later borrowed "Death Cube K" as the name of a bar in his novel Idoru (1996). Gibson explained the reference in an interview for Addicted To Noise: Also in 1994, Buckethead released his second studio album entitled Giant Robot which features many guest appearances by artists such as Iggy Pop and Bill Moseley, the name of the album came from the Japanese series Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot which Buckethead is a fan of http://www.bucketheadland.com/faq/index.html#anchor6301 in the lower part were it says " Acknowledgments". According to Anthony Kiedis' autobiography, Scar Tissue, Buckethead once auditioned to play guitar for the Red Hot Chili Peppers shortly after John Frusciante left the band without having heard any of their songs. The band's bassist Flea told that: Collaborations - Colma (1995 - 1998) In 1995, Buckethead didn't release any solo albums but between 1995 and 1998 he collaborated with several artists like Jonas Hellborg and Michael Shrieve in the album Octave of the Holy Innocents and Bill Laswell in Ambient Compendium. Also during that time Buckethead collaborated in several movie soundtracks like Johnny Mnemonic, Mortal Kombat. Later in 1996, Buckethead released a solo album called Day of the Robot with the collaboration of DJ Ninj and another album in a small label called NTT Records, called Giant Robot with the collaboration of Brain, both are out of print. In 1997 Buckethead began work on an album titled Buckethead Play Disney, but the album has never been released. According to his web page: Also in the same year Buckethead continued to collaborate on Movie Soundtracks like Beverly Hills Ninja and the sequel of Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, also in this year Buckethead joined praxis and released 2 albums Transmutation Live and Live in Poland. Death Cube K released an album that year called Disembodied. Buckethead in 1998 released Colma, an album dedicated to his mother who was sick during this timehttp://www.citypaper.net/articles/111199/feat.20q.shtml ''Monsters and Robots'' - Guns N' Roses time (1998 - 2004) In 1999, Buckethead released his fifth album, a collaboration with Les Claypool from the band Primus entitled Monsters and Robots, currently the best-selling album of his careerhttp://www.bucketheadland.com/faq/faq2/FAQ_2_0.html#18. Also this year Buckethead started three new projects, the first is called Cornbugs with Bill Moseley, Pinchface, and Travis Dickerson, they released their first album called Spot the Psycho. Another project is called Cobra Strike with Pinchface, Brain, DJ Disk, and Bill Laswell, they released the album 13th Scroll. The last project was with the actor Viggo Mortensen and released three albums called One Man's Meat '', ''One Less Thing to Worry About '' and ''The Other Parade. Death Cube K also released an album this year, called Tunnel. Buckethead achieved a higher public profile as a member of Guns N' Roses from 2000 to 2004. However, the band only toured in 2001 and 2002 during this era. Guns N' Roses response to Buckethead's departure was: Despite this, Buckethead's guitar parts were found intact on leaked Chinese Democracy tracks "I.R.S.", "There Was a Time", "Better" and "Madagascar." However, it is uncertain if they will be present on the final product. In March 2008 Axl Rose confirmed that Buckethead will be featured on Chinese Democracy.http://web.gunsnroses.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080326&content_id=a1&vkey=news&fext=.jsp Since that time, his cult following in the underground music communities has steadily increased. He frequently performs at festivals and in clubs nationwide, and often tours as the feature performer. http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/03.13.03/buckethead-0311.html http://www.bingebuddies.com/Promo_index.htm http://www.bingebuddies.com/BINGEART_index.htm During the time Buckethead was with Guns N' Roses he released several solo albums as well as more colaborations with Cornbugs, Viggo Mortensen, Cobra Strike, Praxis, and started a new project with Les Claypool, Brain and Bernie Worrell called Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains, releasing their only album The Big Eyball in the Sky. In an interview with Revolver, Ozzy Osbourne stated that he had offered to have Buckethead play guitar in his band at Ozzfest. Ozzy quickly changed his mind after meeting with him when Buckethead refused to go on stage without his disguise: ''Enter the Chicken'' - Young Buckethead (2005 - 2006) In 2005, Buckethead released an album as Buckethead & Friends called Enter The Chicken. Released by Serj Tankian's label Serjical Strike, the album features Tankian, Maximum Bob, Death By Stereo singer Efrem Shulz and others. The album is marked by its leaning towards more traditional song structure, while still featuring Buckethead's guitar skills. In 2005 Buckethead released his first DVD Secret Recipe, originally sold only on tour; the only places for other fans (those who either didn't go to a show or who live abroad) to obtain it were auction sites such as eBay. Bootleg copies were also sold on eBay for a short period of time. Eventually Travis Dickerson held a raffle for copies of the DVD on his website. Those who wanted to "win" a copy had to enter their name and email address. When entries were closed he picked 200 names at random from those who entered and they were allowed to buy a copy of the DVD from his website. In March 2006 the DVD was finally made widely available. Released in November 2006, the cross-console video game Guitar Hero II features Buckethead's song “Jordan” as an unlockable bonus track. Although the song has been performed live in the past, the video game version is the only known studio recording of the song. Also, the live version almost always contains just the verse and chorus of Jordan, then goes into Post Office Buddy, and returns to the verse and chorus of Jordan. However, the Guitar Hero II version contains a special solo specifically for the game. In late 2006 Buckethead released a two-volume DVD entitled Young Buckethead featuring rare footage from 1990 and 1991. The DVD also contains three complete Deli Creeps shows, a sound check, backstage footage and solo footage of just Buckethead. All the artwork was drawn by Buckethead himself. 27 albums (2007) box set]] In the year 2007, Buckethead released 27 albums. In February tdrsmusic.com announced the release of a new Buckethead CD, entitled Pepper's Ghost which was released on the 1st of March. In February tdrsmusic.com began shipping In Search of The, a 13-CD set of original music that is said to be handcrafted, numbered, and monogrammed by Buckethead and which contains over 9 hours of music. In May the label Avabella released Acoustic Shards, acoustic recordings made in 1991. In August, Buckethead released a reissue of the demo tape Bucketheadland Blueprints with either a hand-drawn cover made by him or as a standard CD. Finally, in October he released 2 new albums:Decoding the Tomb of Bansheebot and Cyborg Slunks and in mid December a standard CD was being printed. Death Cube K also had releases. In August 400 limited-edition, hand-numbered albums were released as DCK and also in mid December he released, under this anagram, a 5 CD box set called Monolithhttp://travisdickersonmusic.com/store/monolith.html, which consists of 1 unbroken track per CD of about 45 minutes each. Also in 2007, Buckethead released albums with other artists; the sequel to the Buckethead and Travis Dickerson's Chicken Noodles was released in mid-December 2007, entitled Chicken Noodles II. http://travisdickersonmusic.com/store/chicken_noodles2.html. He also released an album with Praxis entitled Tennessee 2004, a live recording made in Tennessee in the year 2004. Buckethead also released an album with Shin Terai called Light Years, and Kevin's Noodle House, featuring drummer Bryan Mantia. In July of 2007, it was revealed that Buckethead is working on a project by the name Science Faxtion, a band featuring bassist Bootsy Collins and drummer Brain. Greg Hampton will supply lead vocals. Buckethead also released 5 paintings with 100 reproductions each that were sold by his label TDRSmusic.com http://travisdickersonmusic.com/store/Buckethaed_paintings.html Current projects On January 1 2008 the band Praxis released the album Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness).http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=COCB-53688 According to IMDB, Buckethead appears as himself in American Music: Off the Record, released January 10 2008.http://imdb.com/title/tt0887710/ In March 2008 Jas Obrecht released From The Coop, containing demo recordings from 1988. Buckethead contributed to At All by Viggo Mortensen. A re-issue of the album Enter The Chicken (2005), is expected to be released in April of 2008 with an extra song called Sheng Chi.http://soadfans.com/Article580.htm Serj Tankian has stated that his label Serjical Strike is making a new Buckethead album; there is no date specified for this release. http://soadfans.com/Article580.htm The first album of Science Faxtion is expected to be released in August of 2008. Discography Buckethead's bands Equipment Buckethead related websites * Bucketheadland – Official website * Official Buckethead and Friends Myspace * Travis Dickerson Recording Studio website * Young Buckethead * * Binge and Grab's extensive Buckethead discography * Buckethead on MusicBrainz * Listing of Buckethead's guitar gear References * http://www.bucketheadland.com/tour/ (one blank, white mask with a wig) Category:Avant-garde musicians Category:Guitarists Category:Bassists Category:Composers Category:Producers Category:Deli Creeps Category:Praxis Category:Cornbugs Category:1969 births Category:Living people